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Artist

Barbara Walker

Barbara
Barbara Walker, 2022. Courtesy the artist and Cristea Roberts Gallery, London © Barbara Walker. Photo by Chris Keenan

Barbara Walker, born in 1964 in Birmingham, creates work informed by the social, political and cultural realities that affect her life, as well as those of the diverse immigrant communities around her. Walker works in a range of media and formats, from embossed works on paper to paintings on canvas and large-scale charcoal wall drawings, to explore themes of gender, race, representation and power.

Having studied at the University of Central England, Birmingham, Walker completed post-graduate studies at Wolverhampton University. In 2017 she exhibited at the 57th Venice Biennale as part of the Diaspora Pavilion and, in 2019, was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours for services to British Art. In 2020 Walker was the Bridget Riley Fellow at the British School at Rome and in 2023 was both elected to the Royal Academy of Arts and shortlisted for the Turner Prize.

Walker has exhibited widely nationally and internationally including at Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham (UK); MEWO Kunsthalle, Memmingen (DE); Modern Art Oxford (UK); New Art Gallery, Walsall (UK); Cristea Roberts Gallery, London (UK); Royal Academy of Arts, London (UK); Somerset House, London (UK); Tate, London (UK); British Museum, London (UK); National Portrait Gallery, London (UK); Turner Contemporary, Margate (UK); Art Gallery of Ontario (Canada) and Yale Centre for British Art, Connecticut (US). In 2018 she participated in the Dakar Biennale, Senegal. In 2020 her work was included in the second Lahore Biennale, Pakistan and in 2023, the Sharjah Biennial, UAE.

Barbara Walker lives and works in Birmingham and is represented by Cristea Roberts Gallery.